Update: I was unfortunately not aware of Shamus Young's severe criticism of Fallout 3 available here to link in the original piece and I regret that. It dovetails rather nicely with what I've written and it's much better executed than my piece. I strongly recommend anyone...

GAMING NEWS

Valve and Steam Want EA Back

It's not secret that gamers are in love with Steam. It's just about the only form of DRM they'll accept. As a publisher when your games are kept locked down and your customers can't even tell, you'd be in love with Steam too. So what the hell, EA? You guys were so good together!

Valve's Gabe Newell has been pretty upfront with reporters at Gamescom that he and his platform want EA's games back on their service. Instead of standing outside with a boombox at EA's Redwood Shores offices, Newell took to reporters as the original boombox:

I don't think Valve can pick just one thing and think the issue would go away if we fixed that. We have to show EA it's a smart decision to have EA games on Steam, and we're going to try to show them that. Companies have to earn the right to install content on their customers' PCs on a regular basis. The same thing is true of Steam. We have to prove we are creating value on an ongoing basis, whether it's to EA Or Ubisoft or whoever.

If you want my opinion, EA should totally get back together with Steam. That new guy they're with is lame and a jerk.

I think at the end of the day we're going to prove to Electronic Arts they have happier customers, a higher quality service, and will make more money if they have their titles on Steam. It's our duty to demonstrate that to them. We don't have a natural right to publish their games.

Immediately after speaking with reports, Newell texted "i miss u" to John Riccitiello.